Talking Points on Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us, By Linda Christensen

I have long wondered about the impact on children by cartoons. It never dawned on me growing up
as I was a Saturday Morning cartoon addict. My brothers and I would make a pact that whomever
woke up first would wake up the other two, and try not to wake up our hardworking parents. Mom was good-natured about us getting up early, but Dad was like a bear awoken early from hibernation.

Anyways, the author is spot on in her message that their message is one of racism, whether it is intentional or unintentional. I can remember not only the cartoons which were obvious, but also the Cowboy and Indian shows. The Lone Ranger apparently had the only good indian in the entire country at his side? Tonto who rode with the Lone Ranger seemed to help him kill his own people. If that is not out and out racism I do not know what is. It is not until we grow up and read about how the American Indians welcomed the Pilgrims and Puritans and all other white men and told these new settlers that there was plenty of land, fish, and game to sustain both of their people. The Plymouth tribes even helped the new settlers survive the first winter, when they would have otherwise starved. How did we pay them back? We almost totally killed off their various tribes and drove them off of their land. While I have gotten off target, you can see where I am going with this, from the cartoons that show the Indians are bad and the white man is good. All of the other cowboy shows had the same racist theme running through it, and we were none the wiser until we grew up.

Further; I agree with Dorfman, when he said that children receive a "secret education" in the media. I can remember that it seemed that these stories did more than entertain, but seemed to project a certain image as to how we should act to always be the hero, how women should look, and that they were the weaker of the species and that males had to rescue them from some bad people, which we the hero had to destroy. It is odd that this may have been the first time that we were encouraged to develop a racist attitude against indians or guys wearing black hats, which was a dead giveaway. Dorfman is also right when it seems that we were being told as how to dress, act, and whom to conquer. We were being manipulated and did not even know it.

I remember one incident when we were watching some show from an ancient fable, which portrayed people in Arab clothes, and my baby brother started crying. I looked at him and he said that we were half Syrian and they were being portrayed as the bad guys and he did not want to be the bad people. My Mom had to come in and say something to calm him down, and said that these people were not Catholic, but were from some "other religion" and did not believe in our God. He asked her how can you tell. She said the people who wear these robes were the ones who drove the Catholics out of the Middle East, and that was why you did not see any of the Catholics. She showed us a picture of her Grandmother and Grandfather from our Dad's side of the family dressed up in their Sunday Best and on-board a ship ready to sail to the United States. It was at this point that I started to question the love that I had for our Saturday morning cartoons.

It is the same way with children's books, where we thing that we are being told an entertaining little story, but in reality we are being manipulated into how we should act towards other groups racially. I had a African-American friend Gerald, and he and I used to walk to school together and I would share my lunch with him. Poor Gerald had no Dad at home and he was very poor. My Mom would let me give him and his family the old clothes of myself and my brothers. I remember that he and I were watching television in our home and it portrayed some people of color as the bad people. Gerald just sat there looking ashamed until he said, "I guess that he why my Daddy is in jail? We all be bad." My Mom always listening nearby came into the room and said, "Gerald, this is just a story, and not real. your people are not bad, you have not been given the same opportunity as other people." I had no idea what my Mom meant at the time, but I loved her for it. This is exactly what Dorfman and others were stating when they talked about young minds being manipulated by this and similar media. Years later, a Race Riot broke out in in Pawtucket at a Downtown Block Party, as we were coming out of the Ice Skating Rink and somehow my friends and I found ourselves surrounded by angry black people about to start tearing us apart. All I heard was a voice that said, Fred, what have you gotten yourself into now?' I turned and saw Gerald, who lead us out of the angry crown and said "get out of here now." I never saw him again and that was about fifty years ago. I never even thanked him.

The part about Charting Stereotypes is so blatant and obvious now, but we were clueless then. Who plays the lead in the story? White men. Who plays the bad person? Black people or indians or the Mexicans. Even beauty is manipulated and portrayed here as someone being good and in the right, while someone who is old or ugly is portrayed as being evil or bad. Even Indians in Looney-Tunes are depicted as being inferior human beings. Fat women were never the main characters of the story, nor were they good. The good characters of the story, men or women are always shapely, handsome, with sex appeal, with teeth so white as to have just come from a dentists office. The bad people were always dirty, in black, fat, with bad teeth and a bad attitude, trying to take advantage of the good white women. I am just surprised that no one at the time ever spoke up against this type of racism.

I liked the Black Cinderella story better than the original Cinderella Story, more for content and context, as well as for originality. Growing up I remember my little female relatives all had white dolls with blonde hair and blue eyes. Which by itself is interesting because most of both sides of my family had brown or black hair and brown eyes, and a very few like my grandmother had blonde hair and blue eyes. I once asked my Mom's Mom how come she had different colored hair and eyes then the rest of us? She said Sicily had many conquerer's and masters during its long history, like Italy. At the time I did not know what this meant, but years later I read about what she meant about the various invaders from many nations. The point of this story is that even the dolls were all white and had fair features. It was many years later that someone who was enlightened enough to realize a wide open market existed for dolls other than white. Maybe it was Hasbro, with the G.I. Joe doll series.

Taking Action. If we are all going to be level-headed teachers regardless of our color, race, creed, or sexual choices, we must present ourselves as not buying into these racial stereotypes and myths about others not being as good or smart as the white race. If we see something in books that speaks of a racial bias, or in some way putting down any other races, then we need to act. We need to point it out to our students, and explain "in detail" the error of the author in portraying people as they did. Further, we need to take it up with the principles, and point out that this book may not be appropriate for our students. If nothing else, we need to make sure to expose the myth of racial stereotypes in this book or article. Then at least we have taken the right road, and hope to further enlighten our students.